The Rise of the Pin: Pinterest Is Becoming Important for News

Between experimental features and algorithm updates, online news is receiving a lot of attention from social media sites as of late. Often among those sites are Twitter and Facebook, both of which have released new tools to better serve publishers and consumers. But while the two sites continue seeking dominance, Pinterest — a site more traditionally known for retail — is steadily gaining ground.

Social login provider Gigya released a new study in which it found that 20 percent of all media and publishing related content shared to social networks in Q3 was shared on Pinterest. The pinning site falls third behind Facebook (40 percent) and Twitter (30 percent), but did gain ground after accounting for 18 percent of shares in Q2.

According to Pinterest, people are pinning five million articles to the site per day, and many use reading boards to save articles to consumer at a later time. Currently several celebrities and journalists are using the site to pin articles and news, including The New York Times, Wired, Food + Wine, Rolling Stone, Esquire, and so on.

Pinterest also claimed a higher percentage of shares in other categories, including 44 percent of e-commerce related shares and 17 percent of travel and hospitality shares. With features that enable tracking changes in price and recently-launched Place Pins — which are great for highlighting local businesses and travel destinations — it’s no surprise that the company is succeeding in these industries.

Earlier this fall, Pinterest released a rich pin aimed at bloggers and content producers. Through Article Pins, when someone pins a story or article from your website, that pin will also contain relevant information like the author’s name, the headline, a brief description, and link. This kind of feature-specific focus could convince more people to pin and share articles on the platform.

As a business, especially media-related, you’ll want to make sure that you don’t ignore Pinterest as a growing news platform. This means incorporating the site into your content strategy beyond just sharing images of your new products.

Jennifer Beese: Jennifer Beese has worked as a community manager and social media strategist. When she’s not writing, you can find her studying anatomy and physiology—she literally has a skeleton in her closet—or under the stars with her telescope.